Rawlings-Blake: 'We have a unique opportunity'

Barbara Haddock Taylor / The Baltimore Sun

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake holds a news conference in the ceremonial room at City Hall the day after her victory in the city's primary election.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake holds a news conference in the ceremonial room at City Hall the day after her victory in the city's primary election. (Barbara Haddock Taylor / The Baltimore Sun)

Julie Scharper, The Baltimore Sun

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake spoke briefly Wednesday in her first public appearance after securing the Democratic nomination for mayor, but was tight-lipped on plans for her first full term in the office.

"I'm glad it's over and now we can continue to do the work to move Baltimore forward," Rawlings-Blake said. She swept a field of challengers in the Democratic primary Tuesday with 52 percent of the vote.

In heavily Democratic Baltimore, the general election in November is seen as a formality for the party nominee. Rawlings-Blake, who ascended to the city's highest office last year after Sheila Dixon resigned, is expected to coast to a four-year term against the Republican primary winner, Alfred V. Griffin.

"Today is about moving forward together," Rawlings-Blake told reporters Wednesday morning after the weekly meeting of the city Board of Estimates. "I think [with] the broad support that I was able to get mixed with my olive branch to the opponents' supporters, we have a unique opportunity to move forward again."

Rawlings-Blake received support throughout the city, winning precincts in both traditionally white and traditionally black neighborhoods.

When asked about her goals for the future, Rawlings-Blake returned to the three-part slogan that has been her motto since she was the City Council president.